First Day of Kindergarten

Yesterday was Brayden's first day of Kindergarten. I took him to school to help him find his new room and locker and to turn in the rest of his class room supplies. The classroom was full, there are several kids in his class. Its bigger than his preschool class last year, the teacher certainly has her hands full. Especially if they aren't going to be having any rests or naps in the afternoon. :-) I wouldn't want to be her come 2 p.m. every afternoon.

I left him there after they had finished their breakfast, which was the "shakin the Mama's loose" scene. There were 5 of us that left during the breakfast time. They had lucky charms cereal, goldfish crackers, and orange juice. Brayden turned down the cereal but ate the crackers and drank the juice. Braxton and I waved goodbye, picked up the school calender/menu and headed home. I had a hard time leaving knowing that he would be gone all day! Certainly worth shedding a few tears. These kiddos grow up so very fast and the little moments that they are little don't last very long. I wasn't quite ready for school in some ways, but in other ways it was time.

The staff at the school made sure he got on the right bus and he arrived home at 4:30 p.m. He got off the bus and said "Mama I didn't know it was going to take so long, is supper almost ready?" He had a great day, really enjoyed himself. He also mentioned that he went out to play THREE TIMES today. That is simply amazing. He also had drawn two pics for me during the day. There of course was a stack of papers in his backpack for me to go through and sign. That apparently goes with the territory. I have to read through it all, that will take some time today.

This morning Brayden got up and dressed. He almost ran out of time before the bus came, had to hurry the last little bit. We made it out to the road, discussed where it is safe for him to stand and watched as the bus came down the road. The driver put the stop sign out and I reminded him to watch for the traffic to stop and away he went, running across the road so excited. The house seems empty and quiet without him.

Braxton is doing ok with being the only little guy at home. He learned to swing on his tummy yesterday and had some fun playing alone here in the house too. He had access to all the toys and didn't have to tell big brother "uh uh" (no no) all the time. We learned yesterday that he shouldn't get up when we do, makes his day entirely too long. So this morning he didn't get up till 8:15 and is now out in the shop with daddy playing happily.

All is well in our household, we just keep on keeping on. The boys keep growing and doing well, we are truly blessed. Now Mama just has to get used to getting up at 6:15, that will be more difficult!

The first pics are yest when Brayden came home, the last two are from this morning. I forgot the camera completely yest morning. Opportunities missed!! Very sad that Mama just didn't have my brain in gear yest.

4 Years Ago Today...

Its that time again, we are recognizing Brayden's Gottcha Day. It was 4 years ago today that we picked him up at the orphanage to begin his new life with us. We didn't really do anything special today, we did get icecream sundaes tonight after meeting. He is so focussed on school starting monday that he really didn't know this was a real special day. We talked about it a bit yesterday, so he was aware of it. Happy Birthday to Aunt Jan too, all of it happened on her birthday, court and pickup. What a special day it was. I have just recently gotten all the video pulled off the old tapes and put on my computer to be burned to DVD's. I have some of it done, I plan to watch some of those videos tomorrow. Brayden really has enjoyed seeing himself as he saw Braxton last December. Those pics make it real for him now that he is old enough to understand. Nothing much new to report, just wanted to special note the day!! As of now, Brayden is really putting away the food. We must be about to hit a growth spurt. He ate two hotdogs with buns and one without on Friday when Granny and Aunt Jean were taking care of the kids while Roger and I celebrated my b-day. Then on Sat he ate quite a bit and Sunday too, Monday he ate two shredded beef burritos for supper. Today he had backed off the food a bit altho he ate a big sandwich with two pieces of bread, ham and cheese. Of course he is also eating all the required fruits and veggies with all of this. I put him up to the closet door last night and no growth spurt is noted yet, but perhaps in a week or so. Braxton on the other hand has added 3/4 inch and one pound again in a month. I swear if he begins talking the way he is growing we will really have a handful!! :-) He is going to be one big boy.

Kindergarten Screening

Brayden's Kindergarten screening was Monday morning. Our apptmt was for 9:20 a.m. and we arrived right on time. There was a whole packet of paperwork to fill out, I think I filled in our names and addresses about 6-8 times. After 20 min of paperwork I was visiting with the other parents there. Didn't take long to discover that the three apptmts that were set up for 8 a.m. were still there at 9:45. We finally got to go to the first testing station of 4 at 10:45 a.m. Brayden watched Toy Story till we were called back. I asked to go along for the testing and it was granted. I took notes on what all the testing covered and was amazed at how indepth and above Kindergarten level it really was. I was already shocked at the length of time it took to get started and then the testing lasted for 1 1/2 hrs. Brayden was absolutely too tired to really concentrate on anything. I hope he will like his teacher better than he acted like he might during testing. She seems really nice, but she also said there wouldn't be any naps during the day either. I am not sure how that will go, Brayden is still used to at least alittle down time during the day, if not a real nap. I think they will find that kids with not enough rest go more than a little crazy by afternoon. I am NOT looking forward to school starting on the 23rd. I think I will have one of the most exhausted little boys in history. He is to get on the bus around 7:15 a.m. and get home around 4:30 p.m. That is a really long day for a little guy. I hope he likes it. If he didn't need the social aspect, I might consider home schooling him....oh, except I don't want to teach. :-)

Camping July 30-Aug 1

We found a weekend we could head up to the mountains to cool off. This was Braxton's first true mountain camping trip. We found a campsite not too far from Louis Lake and settled in. There were some rocks there around and Brayden started climbing them right away. It wasn't long and I heard screaming. I went to the door of the camper to see my baby sitting on the ground with blood covering the entire right side of his face as well as both hands and shirt. I found out that sometimes lazy camping begins with a heart stopping moment or two. Reminding myself that head wounds bleed like crazy I grabbed two wet rags and went out the door. Roger came to hold the rags on his head so I could get an ice pak and get the bleeding stopped faster. It all came from a little puncture wound smaller than the tip of my pinkie finger nail. Sure was glad thats all it was and it only took us 15 min to get it all under control and bandaged up. After that Braxton was sure more careful with the activities he chose to do. We did let them get in the lake one afternoon, it was COLD so they didn't stay long. We wore jackets a good share of the time and it rained up there twice while we were there. The tower of dominoes was during one rainy morning, Daddy was doing the entertaining. I really didn't take toys to play inside the camper with, but we found a few strays in the pickup and in the storage part of the camper. Enough to get by for sure. We had several little chipmunks and squirrels around camp to watch too. We had a fire every night and had smores. It was fun tho lazy due to Roger's ankle not being up to snuff we didn't do much for hiking. Brayden left his nice floppy sun had on the rock Roger was sitting on fishing, we went back twice to look for it, never found it tho. Someone else now has the nice floppy sun hat. Braxton can go from smiles to crying in a flash as some of these pics show. Just tell him "no" and that is the current response. :-) We each caught a fish off the boat dock at the lake so that was fun. The scenery was beautiful, my pics don't do it justice.

Trampoline is now FIXED

The trampoline was coming apart, we had to sew some of the rings back on so the springs would stay on between the rim and the jumping matt. We had one kid fall right through where it was coming apart, so no one was allowed on it till Mama and Daddy could get out there with needles and thread. It was NO EASY FEAT. We were using pliers to push and pull the leather work needles and thread through the matt material. Sure glad when it was done, it will work for a little while then we will have to break down and buy a new matt for it.

Brayden's Camera fun

These are Brayden's self portraits, he loves to play with the camera and take tons of pics. Of course I was balancing the checkbooks this day and he had fun capturing that joyous moment too. :-)

All Potty Trained

The potty was such a challenge with Brayden that we decided to not let it slip Braxton's mind after we got home. We had him sit on the potty everynight before bath and usually one other time during the day. When convention came around he was pretty well on the road to being trained so it was a quandry of what to put him in, underwear or pullups. We started with pullups, but it was sooo hot that they wouldn't pull up or down without incident and left little pills all over him. By thurs night I was fed up with them and put him in underwear figuring I would just take my chances. Our little guy didn't have a single accident all conv long. Its amazing, he can't really talk, but he knows how to get the point across when its potty time!!

South Pass City

Brian and Cathy, Jake and Robby came to visit us in July. We took them to South Pass City to look around. We had a great day, finished up with a hot dog picnic at Louis Lake on Loop Road. I think all the boys enjoyed their time together. Braxton tried to keep up, but it was an impossible task. We had TCBY yogurt before heading home and crashing to bed. They left the next morning after breakfast to continue their vacation trip. Sure glad they came and spent some time. We appreciate the friendship we have the requires no maintenance, it simply is and picks up where we leave it.

Water fun

Brayden has always been a huge fan of water, turns out Braxton is too. And together its even more fun.

It is Wyo official

I forgot to post this when the court documents actually arrived. I sent off for his WY birth certificate yesterday with all the necessary documents and payment of course. Will be good to have that document back in hand and be finished and can file away all the important papers. After I got the court documents back for Braxton I went looking for Brayden's can't find them anywhere. Most especially not will all the rest of his important papers. I called the District Court clerk, she said the file is sealed and the only way I can open it is by sending a letter to the judge that handled the case stating my reason for wanting it opened for copies and he will decide if it can happen or not. She suggested that I call our attorney and see if he had copies in his file. Thank You Ron for keeping copies in your files and I am certainly glad the fire two years ago didn't damage Brayden's file beyond useful!! He faxed me a copy of the court decree. I really don't need it for anything other than for Brayden when he is older. And if the school would want a copy for his files might need it for that too. On adoptions they really require more stuff than just the birth certificate. Finally tho, all the important documents are almost finished. I also received the original documents we carried for his citizenship papers that were turned over at the airport. That I need to open today and see what all was in it. We got Brayden's back too, they make an interesting read. It is a manilla env that the coordinators hand us when we are leaving Moscow. It contains all the court documents, doctor notes, parents letters of release, as well as anything else that is required. This env is to remain sealed, NOT TO BE OPENED, till we hand it over to officials at the airport. So we never see those documents unless we request them back. Since there is no reason for the Government to have them now, I want them in the boys important papers file. Meanwhile our little boy is growing sooo fast. He is completely potty trained, had his first accident yest in almost a month and a half so that is really good for just being 2 and 2 mo old. I will get some pics up on stuff we did in July and funny stories too. Project for this afternoon.